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More on my horrible Thomson holiday to Tunisia - The excursions

Well as you all know I have already blogged about the horrendous Thomson trip to Tunisia I posted about before. I have already explained about the lies the travel agent in Thomson travel agents in Leicester city centre told myself and my girlfriend about the location, and holiday. I thought I would add a bit more detail about the resort, and the excursions.

The first thing that springs to mind is one of the excursions which will be shown to be a big selling point of a trip to Tunisia, and that is the Thomson Sahara expedition - this will set you back around 200TND which is about £100, we were told it would be around £50-60 and quite frankly the truth about the Thomson sahara expedition is that it is over-priced, and you will need easily that much money to survive the 2 day trip spending over 20hours on the coach. Just to put in perspective the kind of facilities you will be offered to use on the way to and from the Sahara, I am very glad I got my Hepititis A jab, as the toilets were often compared to being worse then the "long drops" in Egypt.

 

Rather than ranting on for paragraphs and paragraphs about the horrible Thomson Sahara expedition excursion here is a list of what you can expect:

 

  1. To pay over £100 per head (Even children - which I would not recommend taking)
  2. To spend 20 of the 36 hours on a coach which will definately be at full capacity, and will not have a toilet on board.
  3. Be expected to actually have to pay to use the horrible facilities during the bus trip on the sahara excursion.
  4. You will be given a list of what you will need to take, it exclaims that you will need 20TND if you want to go on the camel ride, 10-20TND for drinks, and a few TND for tipping - If you quadruple this, you will be close to what you need.
  5. The bar in the Sahara is comparable to London prices, and we were lucky we took a bottle of water else we would have had nothing to drink.
  6. You will be having an early rise on the first day, followed by about 4-5 hours sleep the night in the sahara, you will have no ACTUAL leisure time in the Sahara, although the sunset/sunrise is beautiful.
  7. The tour guide will bully you into going on the camel ride, and exclaim about getting photos all together. No photo materialised although they charged for single photos as EXTRA.
  8. You will be given the same food for almost every meal which is disgusting considering the amount you pay, it is not nutritious and if you go I suggest you take some vitamin tablets, or some healthy food.


* Although this isn't really a holiday flaw, it was my girlfriends birthday the day we went on the trip, and we intended on getting a bottle of wine under the sunset in the sahara, but because of the poor guide instructions and extortionate prices at the camp, we had to share half a bottle of water between us, and horrible stomach aches (Which we found when we got home was a bacterial stomach infection from people not washing salad with sterile water) Mmmmm!

Here is what is wrong with Thomson's boat excursion we went on during our holiday in Tunisia, we only went on trips to get away from our disgusting hotel, The Marhaba "Palace":

 

  1. The trip last 1 hour, not 3 hours as the brochure says.
  2. The brochure says free drinks during the entire trip, we got 1 small plastic beaker of coke or fanta.
  3. Don't expect to be able to stop off and jump into the see for a snorkle as the brochure says, the boat will not stop.
  4. Although I know the Thomson boat excursion can not guarantee dolphin sitings during the trip, I spoke to some people who had tripped to the resort several times (God knows why!) and they said the dolphins only visit that part of the coast about 2-3 weeks of the year.


Well there are the 2 excursions, we wanted to do more but quite frankly we are glad we didn't the Thomson representative will dance around the bad parts of the trip, and constantly say it musn't be missed. The whole thing is poorly ran and of even worse quality, I genuinely hope people visit this page or my other Thomson holiday review so they don't go on this holiday, and definately not this resort or with Thomson. I can see how the idea behind it all could be good in thought, but it has been actioned poorly. Everyone I spoke to on the trip was not happy with the money they had spent, and the amount of tipping they were expected to do.

 

Please, if you feel the same way as I do about any Thomson holiday you have experienced, then please let me know either by contacting me or by leaving a comment below.

 


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  • greg smit

    Posted at 2011-11-01 23:57:12

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    Posted at 2011-09-30 12:11:16

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    • Jan

      Posted at 2011-10-20 23:29:32

      I am going to Tunisia (Port El Kantoui May 2012.
      I have printed off your comments regarding your horrendous experiences on your Desert Safari trip.
      I shall take it to the Thomson welcome meeting and I shall ask him / her (in front of all the other new holidaymakers to Tunisia) to deny or confirm all points 1-8 that your have brought up before we decide to book any trips with Thomsonn.
      That should be interesting !!!!!

      Reply to comment

  • Anonymous

    Posted at 2011-06-14 04:40:59

    We booked a trip to Cape Verde. I broke my knee and I'm in plaster.

    Contacted Thomsons immediately on 26/5/11. I am fit to travel both my insurance company and consultant informed.

    I was informed that I could have a medical seat on the flight out + a bulkhead seat on the return journey at no X cost.

    On Friday 10/6/11 whilst giving Thomsons of Kings Lynn the size & weight of my wheelchair the assistant happend to state that I was not guaranteed a bulkhead seat on the return journey and they may rufuse boarding, we would be left to pay for extra accomodation until they could accomodate us on the next flight.

    I was advised to cancel my trip by thomsons however I am fit to fly. They asked me to pay £306 for a return flight for two extra seats for return journey. I agreed to pay under protest surprise they now want £715 to guarantee my outward bound and return flights. my holiday starts on Saturday 18th June.

    Reply to comment

  • Anonymous

    Posted at 2011-05-18 03:54:27

    Dude i saw you on TV you did right. These people are taking advantage of people who cant afford the big two grand holidays but want to get away for a while. I would have slapped whoever suggested the holiday so hard. Peniless people 1 Thomson 0 :D

    Reply to comment

  • Anonymous

    Posted at 2011-05-18 01:06:21

    Hi Andy,

    Myself and my girlfriend have just experienced a carbon copy in Egypt.

    Your recent action has inspired us to go the same route to receive due compensation for the worst holiday we have ever had.

    Regards

    Andy

    Reply to comment

  • Anonymous

    Posted at 2011-02-18 12:37:14

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  • Andy Sharman

    Posted at 2010-09-30 23:55:18

    @Kirsty If you'd read my post or any others, you would've seen I was complaining against the tour operators, not the client or the nation. I infact made myself clear of this by saying Tunisia is a nice country. I was mis-sold, by the ENGLISH tour operators if you bought a product online and it wasn't as description I know you would definately be taking it back and complaining! None-the-less, thankyou for your comments, and I hope you enjoy your future holidays!

    Reply to comment

  • Anonymous

    Posted at 2010-08-23 05:58:48

    hi we have just booked at the maharba place, all the other reviews are really good for it tho lookig at trip advisor etc. i have stayed in port el kantaoui before aswell off season the same as i have booked for this time. i didnt book any excurtions from the hotel but got recomendations from guests as where to book. we did the 3 day trip round tunisia, taking in the breathtaking sights of the sunrise over the salt lakes, the set for starwars, the desert and camel ride and the plantation/oasis. we paid a few years ago about £200 for 2 adults, stayed at 2 different 3/4 star hotels it was early starts each day and the hotels provided continental breakfast and a packed lunch sandwich crisps drinks etc, and had dinner at what ever place we was visiting for example at the hotel they used in starwars and this was for no extra costs tho you only had to one drink with your meal and you had to pay for any extras.

    Reply to comment

  • Anonymous

    Posted at 2010-08-07 02:42:59

    Well look, I always book with Thompson as a single parent with a daughter and have never been dissapointed, the lesson to learn here is read reviews all you can find from anywhere...never go for allocated on arrival and look at the price, because you usually get exactly what you pay for.... :-)

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